September 27, 2013

As an organization that has worked for a decade to help criminalized sex workers and survivors of trafficking, the Sex Workers Project is hopeful that the new special courts in New York will coordinate a more compassionate and respectful approach to those arrested for prostitution.

These courts have the potential to benefit sex workers and survivors of trafficking by looking beneath the surface of these arrests.

However, I’d like to highlight a few points. Not all those arrested for prostitution are victims of human trafficking. Individuals brought into these courts who do sex work by choice or because of difficult life circumstances, and people falsely profiled as sex workers because of their race, gender identity or arrest history, also deserve help and a zealous defense.

While the new courts are intended to help victims of trafficking, these victims must first be arrested and detained by law enforcement — an experience that is often abusive and results in the victim’s mistrusting law enforcement — in order to get the court-mandated services.

If we all agree that those who are forced into commercial sex are not criminals, why are we trying to help them by arresting them? While these courts may make the experience less harmful, anti-trafficking resources should primarily be focused on interventions, outreach and services that meet victims’ real needs outside the criminal justice system.

ROBIN RICHARDSONNew York, Sept. 26, 2013

The writer is an Equal Justice Works fellow with the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center.